Colonial Trust Co SC Has $51,000 Stock Holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Colonial Trust Co SC grew its stake in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 78.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 410 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 180 shares during the quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $51,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. CoreCap Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of American Water Works by 162.4% in the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,401 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $174,000 after buying an additional 867 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 7,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 437 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth $253,000. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in American Water Works during the 4th quarter worth $46,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in American Water Works by 38.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,695,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $335,592,000 after buying an additional 747,316 shares during the period. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group lowered American Water Works from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Barclays started coverage on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $138.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of American Water Works from $139.00 to $148.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on American Water Works from $142.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.22.

American Water Works Stock Up 1.0 %

AWK stock opened at $146.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.39. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $118.74 and a fifty-two week high of $155.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $144.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $135.03. The company has a market cap of $28.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.73.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 22.44%. American Water Works’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a $0.8275 dividend. This represents a $3.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This is a positive change from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.29%.

About American Water Works

American Water Works Company, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States. It offers water and wastewater services to approximately 1,700 communities in 14 states serving approximately 3.5 million active customers. The company serves residential customers; commercial customers, including food and beverage providers, commercial property developers and proprietors, and energy suppliers; fire service and private fire customers; industrial customers, such as large-scale manufacturers, mining, and production operations; public authorities comprising government buildings and other public sector facilities, such as schools and universities; and other utilities and community water and wastewater systems.